Sprint Buys $200 Million Into Jay Z’s Tidal Streaming Service

Sprint Corp. acquired 33% stake in rapper and businessman Jay Z’s music streaming service Tidal. The deal Monday to bring the high-fidelity streaming service and exclusive content from Tidal available to 45 million retail Sprint customers, marking the company’s move to more content driven services in a highly competitive wireless market.

Apple Inc was in talks to buy Tidal to boost its Apple Music service, according to a Wall Street Journal report in June.

A photo posted by TattleTailzz (@tattle.tailzz) on Jan 23, 2017 at 6:58am PST

Sprint Chief Executive Marcelo Claure will join Tidal’s board.

Sprint shares our view of revolutionizing the creative industry to allow artists to connect directly with their fans and reach their fullest, shared potential,” Jay Z said in statement. “[Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure] understood our goal right away and together we are excited to bring Sprint’s 45 million customers an unmatched entertainment experience.”

Tidal calls itself an “artist-owned” service backed by Kanye West, Jay Z’s wife Beyoncé and Madonna among others, and is available in more than 52 countries.